[SOLVED] Discover app search displays (wine) in the app name

[daveh]

In the Discover utility, if an app search displays an app with (wine) appended, does that mean that Wine is required to be installed, or that Wine will will be installed as part of the snaps package? Just moving over from Windows on a permanent basis, and am interested if any Windows apps I found useful, were ported over. Many thanks for the help.

[claydoh]

Can you list an example?

But yes, if Wine is necessary, it will be installed as a dependency, or it is embedded in the snap/flatpak (less likely I think)

If a Windows application has been ported over to Linux, it won't be using Wine to 'emulate' a Windows environment.

[daveh]

Thank you for your reply. The app I was looking at was 'SumatraPDF' In the search results, it is displayed as SumatraPDF (Wine).

[claydoh]

I am guessing it is this Snap packages
https://snapcraft.io/sumatrapdf

Note the dates.

I'm gonna say it's a pass imo
Also imo it is wiser and safer to get the installer exe from official sources and install this using Bottles or Lutris -- via Flatpak in these cases.

You need to verify if you trust some random person who took this application and packaged it up, but then abandoned it.

I won't tell you that you didn't need most if not all your general Windows software, even though it's true. You will figure it out for yourself.

It doesn't help that right now, Linux software packaging formats have become a fair bit confusing

[daveh]

Your points are well taken. So.....if I will need to verify results provided by the Discover utility going forward, is snapcraft.io the place to go? By your last comment, I presume there are other sources to check? True enough this is a confusing topic, but then the Linux crowd has never really made it easy to move from Windows. A lot better than the old Slackware days to be sure. Hopefully some consistency in packaging will come about, instead of something resembling Dodge City on a Saturday night. Again, many thanks for your replies.

[claydoh]

The third party app sources like snap and flatpak are generally fine. But both have the "problem" in that anyone can contribute.

Flatpaks have a new system where applications packaged by the official project's team are marked as "verified' on flathub's website. Snap doesn't do this, at least not yet. Discover doesn't show this status, either.

For me, something like a Windows app binary rolled into a package kinda smells fishy, in the way that crypto stuff does, targeting a specific group.

Having said that, a two year old package that is still there and hasn't been reported as malicious.....


For PDF you really can't beat Okular, which you already have. The browser viewers are ok, too.

I can't say what Sumatra offers to that Okular or others don't, but it probably is more than good enough to offset the time and effort needed to get something installed and running with Wine, etc.

[daveh]

thanks for the pdf viewer suggestion. I liked Sumatra because it was so fast, mostly because it didn't have the other fluff Windows apps are know for. I will get familiar with Okular. With your help, I think we can mark this topic as closed. Being brand new to the community, how is that done?

[Snowhog]

I think we can mark this topic as closed. Being brand new to the community, how is that done?

At the bottom right of your first post, click on Edit (it has a pencil icon to its left). Then click on the drop down menu selection to the left of the Topic Title and choose [SOLVED] then click on the Save button (bottom right).

[TinyTim]

thanks for the pdf viewer suggestion. I liked Sumatra because it was so fast, mostly because it didn't have the other fluff Windows apps are know for. I will get familiar with Okular. With your help, I think we can mark this topic as closed. Being brand new to the community, how is that done?

I work for a publisher and use Atril document viewer for proofing my .pdf graphics. I don't know what you are using these programs for, but I have found Open Office Desktop Editors (edits .pdf) to be something of great interest. I found Libreoffice version 7.3.7.2 is doing very well in correctly opening MS files and editing them.

[daveh]

I'm a retired IT guy and am volunteering with a horse farm that uses horses to help special needs kids gain some confidence. We use pdf's for the horse show forms. Thanks for your suggestions.